Dog Blog

WILD DOGS: Life On The Outside

The dog is an adaptive survivor, taking on many shapes and sizes through our selective breeding and necessity. Though we are all familiar with the domestic cousin to the wolf, many people don’t realize that the dog has some very close cousins that populate the world, living on the edge of our civilization.

FERAL DOGS

The closest to the domestic dogs, feral dogs are a broad term used to describe relatives of the common, or domestic, dog that have reverted to their wild form, living completely without the guidance of human beings. Though coming from many different breeding stocks, feral dogs have blended their breeding for a mid-sized, medium haired dogs of high intelligence.

Dingo: The most famous of the feral dogs, the Australian dingo were created at least 4,000 years ago from domestic dogs that originally belonged to aborigines. Looking like a medium-sized dog with short yellow fur, the dingo is considered the most “purebred” dog in the world. Dingoes cannot breed with other wild dogs and are the only example we have of ancient dog genetics.

Pariah Dogs: Living on the outskirts of villages and in the wilds of India, the feral dogs of this land are known as “pariah” dogs, which comes from the idea of the dogs being outcasts, or socially low. Pariah Dogs, while also a type of breed recognized by the major kennel clubs, here refer to the wild and semi-feral dogs of India and Asia. Smart, fast and cautious of humans, Pariah dogs vary in color and size, though they usually have rust-colored or dirty yellow fur. The ancient form of the Canaan Dog and Carolina Dog are also a forms of the Pariah Dog, though these are “re-domesticated“ forms.

Curiously, many of these feral dogs still rely and have formed a symbiotic relationship with humans. In many parts of the world, feral dogs live on human garbage and waste, existing on the outskirts of towns, villages and cities. Though very wild and in no way domesticated, these feral dogs still retain some of their ancient, “human-friendly” ancestors.

Canis Lupus Dingo

AFRICAN HUNTING DOGS

Wearing a strange and beautiful coat of brown, black, yellow and white, the African Hunting Dog looks like a strange combination of a hyena and a border collie. Probably the most social dog in the world, the African Hunting Dog functions in a giant pack, roaming the African savanna and communicating with a large vocabulary and many different body movements.

Because it is not descended from the wolf, the African Hunting Dog is not a true canid, but a separate part of the dog family; it’s part of it’s own group known as Lycanon.

The African Hunting Dog is on the verge of extinction, and will probably not survive in the wild for many more years. Not only must this wild dog battle hyenas and lions for prey, the dog is very susceptible to disease and parasites. Recently, human farmers have taken to poisoning and hunting the African Hunting Dog.

Lycaon pictus African hunting dog

DHOLE

Also known as the red dog, the dhole is very similar in it’s behavior to the African hunting dog–they are social and work in packs to hunt food and take care of their young. However, the dhole is thick and short, with a heavy red coat and a very bushy tail. A Chinese dog, there is a western version of the dhole, which lives in India and has a lighter coat. Like the dingo, the dhole will not breed with domestic dogs.

A Chinese dhole, or red dog

COYDOG

Unknown to most people, the coyote of North America (there are no coyotes anywhere else) will sometimes breed with domestic dogs, producing the unique “Coydog“. A cross between a male coyote and a female dog, “coydogs” are very rare (especially with decreased coyotes populations), and these half-breeds are neither wild or tame. As a result, the coydog often takes to killing domestic livestock and pets for food. When a female coyote mates with a male dog, it is known as a dogote.

The coyote is a unique case in the world of wild dog relatives, as coyotes can (and will) mate with wolves and dogs. Because of the variation of dog breeds, there is no uniform look for a coydog, though the animal will often have a look very similar to a coyote.

A Coydog